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Is Toronto a ‘great’ city? Ford differs with Tory and Chow

At the end of the Toronto Star’s debate on “Big Ideas” to improve Toronto’s future, the top two mayoral candidates presented starkly different views on the city’s present.

Doug Ford (open Doug Ford's policard), effectively running as the incumbent, took issue Monday with John Tory’s frequent promise to take Toronto “from good to great.”

“I believe that we have the greatest city in the world,” Ford said. “And I also believe in not reinventing the wheel. If things aren’t broken, we move forward.” He added: “To say that we have a ‘good’ city? That’s a shame. We have the greatest city in the world. We have a prosperous city. We have a city that’s thriving right now.”

Tory has run as a relentless Toronto-booster, and he has projected a cheery optimism in recent weeks as he has tried to solidify his lead. In his own closing speech, though, he enumerated the reasons he sees the city as flawed.

“I’m sorry: I can’t declare this the greatest city in the world, and something that is thriving, when you have 20-per-cent-plus youth unemployment. I can’t declare it the greatest city in the world when it has unemployment levels generally that are above the national average and have been for some time,” he said.

“I can’t declare it the greatest city in the world on something smaller and more granular in the transit area, like the fact that people wait 12, 15 minutes for a bus and streetcar and then three come all at once. I can’t declare it the greatest city in the world when we can’t even use a debit or credit card to buy subway tokens.”

Chow weighed in at the beginning of her post-debate media scrum — after she overheard Ford repeat his “greatest city in the world” boast in his own scrum. Without being asked a question, she scoffed.

“Ask the kids that are having trouble finding enough food, especially after school. Ask them how wonderful this city is,” she said. “Just ask the kids that we just met in the afternoon at Jane and Finch about how great the city is, and how the housing is in disrepair for years and years, and how ‘great’ their neighbourhood is. Anyway. I digress.”

The Star held the debate in conjunction with the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute. One week before the Oct. 27 vote, the three leading candidates debated many of the top 10 “Big Ideas” chosen by Star readers from a reader-generated list of 1,000. Twenty-three thousand votes were cast to choose the winning 10 ideas from a short list of 35.

The number-one idea was the downtown relief line subway, which is the top transit priority of Ford and Chow. It was Tory’s own top priority, the SmartTrack rail line, that received the most attention.

Ford, returning over and over to the “what’s the story, Mr. Tory” rhyme-attack, raised Tory’s belated acknowledgment of the need for SmartTrack tunnelling after months of saying none was needed. Chow again questioned Tory’s ability to raise $2.7 billion through tax increment financing.

Speaking at the U of T’s Rotman School of Management, both Chow and Ford questioned the credibility of U of T engineering professor and transit expert Eric Miller, whose effusive endorsement of SmartTrack is being wielded by Tory to fend off rivals’ attacks. Both Chow and Ford misleadingly said Miller is a mere “friend” of Tory’s.

“I know you don’t know who Eric Miller is,” Tory told Ford, “but you didn’t know who Margaret Atwood was either.” He dismissed criticism of the plan as nothing more than “hand-wringing.”

The number-eight idea was to “use the city’s full revenue-generating capacity.” Both Chow and Tory said the city does indeed have a revenue problem, but both said the ideal solution is to secure more money from the federal and provincial governments. Neither wants to use the city’s power to impose new taxes.

The number-six idea was to improve police accountability by requiring officers to wear lapel cameras. Chow endorsed them; Tory stopped short of taking a definitive position, but he said he believes the current police pilot project will prove that the cameras are effective. Ford was mostly negative, saying the cost of the cameras is a budget problem.

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Chow pleaded for the city to choose the transit plans preferred by “experts.” She said the Ford administration had wilfully misled the public on transit issues: “A streetcar,” she said, “all of a sudden became an LRT.”

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